


Stand Unshaken

by ShipperTrash140109



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Red Dead Redemption 2 Spoilers, Sad with a Happy Ending, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 00:11:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 420
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18487294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShipperTrash140109/pseuds/ShipperTrash140109
Summary: Just finished red dead 2 and there are literal tears in my eyes





	Stand Unshaken

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what this is but Arthur dying of TB on a mountain was not traumatic enough for me apparently, so I wrote this rubbish

The Sun licked at the horizon, and he felt the numb relief of nothing. The aching gnaw of sickness, the weight of betrayal, the stabbing sense of guilt at knowing he'd trusted his horse with his life and in the end it given him it's own, hell, even the sting of his beaten face. All was gone. To say it was replaced by peace would be cliched, but it was all he could relate the sensation to, not that he'd known much peace, at least up until now.

It happens slowly, then all at once. One moment he's there, on a mountain, his own organs throwing in the towel. Then he's not- he's in a field, and the horizon is alive with movement, sharp, eye stinging movement.

For a moment, he can't focus on anything, the blinding twinkling in the distance disarming and near impossible to look away from. Then it all slowly starts to knit together. They're shiny and rippling much like a disturbed puddle, and when he squints, they look like paper when held to the sunlight- translucent and desaturated, a shadow of their former colours.

It's them, _the gang!_ Hosea, and Lenny, and Ms Grimshaw... And Sean and- and... "You're a brave girl" her ears perk, and for the first time in a while, his smile reaches his eyes.

"Dutch needs you Hosea" the man smiles, lips pressed thin, Dutch would always need him, it was time to cut him loose. He wondered whether Hosea kept watching towards the end there, watch his best friend veer further and further from his path.

"Y'know, you're a lot less ugly from this angle" the ginger grinned, and he was like a beacon of wildfire, one that had been extinguished too early, yet would now remain lit for eternity.

He's helped up, and standing without the weight of the world's problems and more is like a breath of fresh air- also something he'd been barred from for a while now. "Now we can get you reading again, eh Morgan?" Lenny's always the planner, Arthur wouldn't mind knowing how long he's been waiting to say that.

Hand runs up phantasmic flank, and there's a velvety muzzle at his cheek, wiping at the tears that have since gathered on the scarred skin. "Thank God you showed up now, she's been running herself into a fit waiting for you" Ms Grimshaw tuts, herding the group along, the sun heating their faces and welcoming them into paradise-actual paradise. Where they'll stand, unshaken, reunited again.


End file.
